Opponents threaten to challenge saggy pants ordinance in court

Wednesday

Aug 20, 2014 at 10:09 AM

Florida NAACP officials, legal advocacy lawyers and the Marion County Public Defender's Office said during an NAACP town hall meeting Tuesday they would challenge the constitutionality of Ocala's saggy pants ordinance as soon as someone is charged with violating the city's new law.

By Fred HiersStaff writer

Florida NAACP officials, legal advocacy lawyers and the Marion County Public Defender's Office said during an NAACP town hall meeting Tuesday they would challenge the constitutionality of Ocala's saggy pants ordinance as soon as someone is charged with violating the city's new law.

The meeting followed Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn's failed attempt during Tuesday's City Council meeting to persuade the council to consider scraping the ordinance.

“If anyone is arrested, I will assure each and everyone here my office will fight this ordinance,” said Bill Miller, chief assistant public defender for Marion County.

The ordinance prohibits anyone on city property from wearing his or her pants two inches below their natural waist in a way that exposes underwear or bare buttocks. Violating the ordinance is punishable by a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. It also opens the door to giving police potential probable cause for searches.

Miller told the Star-Banner before the meeting began that the ordinance had several problems and would be difficult for the city to defend in court. One reason was because it was vague.

He also warned that courts have already struck down similar ordinances in other communities and predicts Ocala's ordinance is no exception.

Dale Landry, president of the NAACP Tallahassee branch, warned there would be problems if the city enforced the ordinance.

“You arrest one child, we will do direct action,” he told the 60 people in attendance.

The NAACP action would range from telephone calls to city elected officials to a boycott.

Another alternative is “we're (preparing) to go to court,” he said, drawing applause at the United Theological Seminary on Fourth Street,

Landry said he the ordinance will lead only to unwanted contact between police and teenagers that could escalate to violence.

“Why do we have to increase the interaction of police and children?” he asked. “And … the next thing, before we know it, bam, Johnny is shot … and all because of saggy pants.”

And if that happens, “I have a problem with that. The NAACP has a problem with that,” he said.

He said that being stopped for wearing saggy pants could lead to young, black men getting criminal records and limiting their options later in life.

“The free African-American male is an endangered species,” he said, citing the large number of black youths with criminal records. “If you can't vote you're not free.”

Brandon Johnson, first vice president of the NAACP's Florida Youth and College Division, said it was not the role of police to enforce such an ordinance.

“The law does not promote anything we don't already know,” he said. “An officer … should not have to stop me … for something my mother already told me.

“I shouldn't have to be here tonight and neither should you,” he said.

Andrea Costello, legal director of the nonprofit Legal Advocacy Center of Central Florida, said her legal agency also was preparing to fight the constitutionality of the ordinance. She said she now is looking for people affected by the law in order to start the legal process against it.

“People should feel free to walk on the sidewalk and the street and not feel they're under siege,” she said.

The ordinance was originally proposed by Ocala Councilwoman Mary Sue Rich.

Margaret Hollomon Chappelle, Marion NAACP secretary, said Rich never consulted with community leaders before proposing the ordinance.

“She is not representing her constituents, and she has not,” Chappelle said. “She never came to the community (to discuss saggy pants).”

“It's not a police affair. The City Council should have more on their agenda than fashion,” she said. “It's a fad. The church will address it. The family will address it.”

The Rev. Reginald Willis said that ordinance unfairly singles out predominately young, black men who make up the majority of those who wear their pants below the waist, exposing underwear. He thinks the ordinance is also hypocritical because similar limits are not placed on young women wearing bathing suits, often on sidewalks advertising car washes for their school or other charitable events.

“When a young girl shows off her body it's acceptable … but when we see a young man and saggy pants, all of a sudden I'm (supposed to be) repulsed to no end,” Willis said.

Willis said he thinks some supporters of the ordinance are “threatened by the look of the saggy pants and what it represents.”

His solution is not to ban it but get more young men into job programs and community centers where they will, of their own accord, stop wearing saggy pants.